Telefon (1977)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Don Siegel

Writers:

Walter Wager (novel)
Peter Hyams (writer) ...

Release Date:

16 December 1977 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Action | Thriller

Tagline:

They'll do anything to stop Telefon. The operation that can trigger 51 human time bombs.

Plot:

The KGB's looking for one of their people, a man named Dalchimsky cause he has stolen something important...

Plot Keywords:

Phone Terror | Poem | Hypnosis | Sabotage | KGB

Awards:

1 nomination

US TV Schedule:

Sun. Oct. 19

1:15 AM

TCM

Cast

Charles Bronson	...	Major Grigori Borzov
Lee Remick	...	Barbara
Donald Pleasence	...	Nicolai Dalchimsky
Tyne Daly	...	Dorothy Putterman
Alan Badel	...	Colonel Malchenko
Patrick Magee	...	General Strelsky
Sheree North	...	Marie Wills
Frank Marth	...	Harley Sandburg
Helen Page Camp	...	Emma Stark
Roy Jenson	...	Doug Stark
Jacqueline Scott	...	Mrs. Hassler
Ed Bakey	...	Carl Hassler
John Mitchum	...	Harry Bascom
Iggie Wolfington	...	Father Stuart Diller
Hank Brandt	...	William Enders

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | Iceland:16 | West Germany:16 (nf) | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (1978) | Spain:T | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Atrium Lobby, Hyatt Regency Hotel - 5 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Charles Bronson and Donald Pleasence appear together for the last time.

Quotes:

Barbara: The Major wants me to give you a message.
Harley Sandburg: Alright, what is it?
Barbara: Stay out of it. Leave us alone. Just forget the whole thing. Cause, if you don't, if you try to move in on us, the telephones are going to start ringing again and this time the bells are going to be heard all over the world. That's the message.
Harley Sandburg: Clarify, Barbara. I don't understand what that means.
Barbara: I suggest you check it out with the KGB in Moscow, we've just sent them the same message.
[Hangs up the phone, then to Borzov]
Barbara: Now where do we go?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Grindhouse (2007)

Miles to go before I sleep

This excellent spy thriller directed by action master Don Siegel unfortunately has a drab, aloof title that causes many to skip it for a more exciting-sounding tag. Even Charles Bronson fans, and they are legion, often ignore this little gem for others of the genre. Not only a dilly of a suspense story filled with some of Hollywood's best actors at the time, "Telefon" also contains humor and many tongue-in-cheek lines. The Robert Frost poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," utilized to trigger the drug-induced hypnotized Soviet agents to finish their mission becomes a pun for KGB agent Maj. Grigori Borzov (Bronson)when ready to give alluring Barbara (Lee Remick) a tumble in the hay. Borzov looks KGB agent Barbara lustfully in the eyes and emphatically affirms, "Miles to go before we sleep."

Though many consider the story fanciful, it is not as far fetched as some of the actual schemes concocted by overly zealous CIA and KGB officials during the Cold War, especially at the time of the eyeball to eyeball confrontation between the Soviets and the Americans during the days of U-2, the Bay of Pigs, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The fifty KGB agents trained at the time of the U-2 Incident to replace recently deceased Americans with similar profiles, to take out key installation sites when receiving the oral code, lines from the Robert Frost poem, are put on what seems to be permanent hold until one KGB trainer goes berserk and reopens the can of worms over a decade later, when many of the installations have been closed, converted, or moved. Enter agents Borzov and his supposed helper, Barbara, to stop the madman, Nicolai Dalchimsky, played with his usual nefariousness by Donald Pleasence. Borzov uncovers a method to his madness and the fun begins. But what is to become of Borzov once Dalchimsky is removed? There's plenty of spills and thrills along the way with the seasoned actors given intelligent and often humorous lines by writer Peter Hyams whose script is based on the novel by Walter Wager.

Though no one in the cast falters, even in the bit parts, Tyne Daly steals the show as Dorothy Putterman (oh, how the name fits), a computer nerd in those glorious DOS days of old before the world heard of Bill Gates. Not only does Daly get some of the best lines in the movie, she delivers them with élan. She also reminds the viewer to be careful what is said to a computer, because they are very sensitive little fellers.